This is not about Ted Kennedy's driving skill...

..because it is important to acknowledge a very high-profile politician's passing, because it is vital that the Massachusetts senatorial seat is filled quickly (by whomever the constituents elect) to contribute to the many issues facing us, and because it will not bring Mary Jo Kopeckne back to life to have the self-proclaimed Lion pass on.

Kennedy's passing brings a potential for paralysis into Congress (yet again), in this instance involving health care debates and bills proposed that now have no champion worthy of all the press that comes with something of this nature. When Kennedy put the Congressional kibosh on a universal health-care initiative that came from Richard M. Nixon (!) some years back, believing that it did not go far enough, the closest call to socialized medicine in America to date was dealt a serious blow. A blow significant enought to be called Kennedy's "biggest regret" by none other than the Chappaquiddick Kid himself. This was a key factor behind him calling universal health care his "life's work".

With his passing at the age of 77 duly noted, a brief look at the remains of Camelot, as of August 26, 2009:

Siblings of JFK remaining alive: 1 (I think a sister is in her 90's, not counting Eunice, and her recent passing...truly sad. She introduced the world to the Special Olympics. That is a worthy legacy.)
Grandchildren of Joseph Kennedy, bootlegger, currently in an elected office: 2 (Ted's son is a state senator in Rhode Island, I think, and by marriage the governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, qualifies)

Now, to be fair, the early and violent deaths of all three of his brothers (Joe Junior died as a fighter pilot during WWII) heaped immense pressure on young Edward in the eyes of his family, one that believed greatness was its birthright. His role in the Civil Rights act of 1965 passing was extraordinarily detailed and essential, and countless other pieces of major legislation went through the Senate under his watch. To think what would have happened if he weren't a Kennedy, and the unfortunate auto accident in 1969 had happened anyways...

Take into account the number of politicians that have been run out of office in the last few years due to affairs and graft, then consider what would have happened if the driver of that car that evening (Kennedy) had the last name of a non-deified President. Roger Clinton got jail and probation for a DUI in a party city of drunken a-holes (Hermosa Beach, CA) while his brother was in office, yet nothing ever came of this drunken-driving with a fatality involved. Heck, even Donte' Stallworth was suspended from the NFL for a year. (Stallworth was convicted of vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, sentenced to 30 days, then served 24 days and was released earlier this year.)

Put aside for the moment that the vast majority of his politics go against many people's beliefs. There is no conceivable way that this woman, an assistant of his, deserved for her life to be over and reduced to one line in the multiple 8,000 word obituaries of this 'Lion of the Senate'. No legitimate investigation, no notes of the happening in textbooks of children in America (and many lesser things were in those books, and I was born 5 years after this event)...and President Obama and former President Clinton are espousing warm and elongated eulogies of this man.

It is possible that my earlier column about celebrity making people behave differently has roots even further back, but if Mike Vick and Kobe Bryant can be vilified for less egregious acts than the death of an innocent human being and this man gets smoke-filled bubbles blown up the backsides of America on his behalf, we're either looking at pure racism or unadulterated hypocrisy. Or, even more disturbing, it is a symptom of what has destroyed the Fourth Estate: Crony-ism.

It's not about what ya know, it's who ya know. The old adage. My concern over this kind of thing, an issue hashed out long before I was aware of these issues, is the difference between how people could look past this and how people now fixate on minor transgressions of minor celebrities to no end. Kennedy certainly knew the police involved that evening, certainly did something uncouth involving Ms. Kopeckne, and certainly was never convicted for it.

Not even in the court of public opinion. Rest in Peace, Mr. Kennedy.